Vintage Louisville Slugger Bat Bank

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I’ve enjoyed going ‘antiquing’ for as long as I can remember.  It was something my mom liked to do when I was growing up and I just got the appreciation for it.  Always being on the hunt for that great find.  The reasons for visiting antique stores have changed quite often over the years. Up until I got back into collecting sports cards I collected vintage Pabst Blue Ribbon memorabila. Anything from old signs to metal beer trays; just loved the look of the old advertising, design, etc…

Nowadays I’m on the hunt for vintage (usually just quirky) sports memorabilia. Some things I resell, but most things I hold on to.  Fortunately I had pictures of things I’ve found before, so I decided to share them with you. Let me know where you’ve found amazing treasures by posting a comment!

I live in central Texas, or the Hill Country to most.  There are a LOT of small towns around here and I’m somewhat spoiled by my options of shops to frequent. The main town I like to visit is called Gruene, Tx (pronounced: GREEN).  It hides about an hour southwest of Austin and is home to many delights such as The Gristmill restaurant and the world-famous Gruene Hall. There are two antique shops that I visit from time to time. Gruene River Antiques and the Gruene Antique Co. are the main two. They both offer various selection of goodies, two different layouts and inventory updates. Gruene Antique Co. seems like it is refreshed a lot more frequently then Gruene River.

This particular day I took my daughter to visit Gruene River and didn’t see anything I like in the hour I was in there until I was ready to leave and some furniture caught my eye.  I went to look at the antique cabinet and saw a Louisville Slugger bat bank sitting on a shelf right next to what I was looking at!  It was made out of plastic and featured 11 National League teams that existed at the time.  I knew the bat banks were around for a long time so I was excited that I found it and that it was reasonably priced. It was only 20 dollars, which to me seemed like a steal.  This is usually because the collector part of my brain usually outweighs the entrepreneur part of my brain.

The bats could be removed from the stand and the coin slot was on the top. It had a twist-off cap on the bottom so you could take your saved money and buy baseball cards, I’d assume.  Obviously, I thought the Astros bat was the best part of the bat bank!  Stay tuned for more of the various finds I pick up around central Texas, and hopefully, beyond.